Burnt Hands Perspective

AMA [Ask Me Anything] - Uncensored Kitchen Talk: From Culinary Fails to Dating Advice

• Antonio Caruana and Kristen Crowley • Season 4 • Episode 49

Share episode

Send us a text

We dive into our first-ever Ask Me Anything episode, tackling questions from our audience that range from serious industry insights to hilarious personal preferences. This is UNCENSORED, so be ready to hear it all. LOL

• Early career challenges, including difficulty advancing in the kitchen 
• The most overused ingredient in modern cooking
• Chef Tony's approach to difficult customers
• Death row meal choices revealed
• Best advice for industry newcomers
• Maintaining menu innovations
• The challenges of bartender-customer interaction in the age of smartphones
• Chef Tony admits to his meltdown moment in the kitchen
• The best flour for pasta making at home

And even some hot takes on dating crazy women and body part preferences are in this one. Thank you all for your questions, and we will be doing these once a season now as well!

Make sure you submit your questions when we post them again on IG!

Welcome to the show! Burnt Hands Perspective

Support the show

VIRTUAL TIP JAR: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2388325/support

CONTACT US:
www.burnthandsperspective.com
info@reframeyourbrand.com
IG @Theburnthandsperspective

Thank you to our location sponsor, Luce Secondo, located in Summit Pointe in Chesapeake, VA www.lucesecondo.com

For sponsorship opportunities, don't hesitate to get in touch with us directly.

*The views and opinions on this show are meant for entertainment purposes only. They do not reflect the views of our sponsors. We are not here to babysit your feelings, if you are a true industry pro, you will know that what we say is meant to make you laugh and have a great time. If you don't get that, this is not the podcast for you. You've been warned. Enjoy the ride!

Speaker 2:

We are ready this is going to be a fun one we have never, done an AMA or ask me anything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, AMA is ask me anything. So in the social media world a lot of people do these, where you submit your questions and we just randomly answer them. So we got a lot of questions. We're going to try and get through all of them, but we've never done this. It's technically ask us anything, not ask me anything.

Speaker 2:

So AUA, right, so it's ask us Anything, which is cool because we actually put it out for a lot of people and I can't believe I'm actually humbled on how much response we got.

Speaker 1:

It was really cool it was really cool.

Speaker 2:

So we got a lot of questions that came in and they're pertaining to everything from ass and titties to cooking, to recipes, to how do I deal with this, that and the other.

Speaker 1:

Customer service Customer service.

Speaker 2:

Being a bar customer, we got everything we uncovered today.

Speaker 1:

So this is actually exciting for us because we don't get to do this.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I don't even know if I can answer some of the questions. I might not just know.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're coming to the end of the first year of the podcast, so this is appropriate timing, I think, because people haven't really gotten to ask us anything, so okay, so we're going to let you start with yours and we're going to start with some, cause we had it on Facebook and Instagram, so we have them all pulled up. We're going to just go through them randomly, so I will let you start on your page, and then we'll switch to this one, which has the more scandalous questions.

Speaker 2:

All right, so we'll start on mine. So do you want to read them? You want me to read them.

Speaker 1:

I'll let you read them. Oh, they're pertaining to you.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about who they are, and let's go down the list and let's see if we have some redundant questions. I'll answer one and then we'll pass, because I've already answered that type of thing all right, so this is a good one.

Speaker 1:

Um can you share a particularly challenging experience you faced while training or early in your kitchen career?

Speaker 2:

who's that from?

Speaker 1:

this is from alexis. Okay, so alex, chef, alex. Um, so we'll start with that one she three, so we'll bang through these real quick.

Speaker 2:

It's not, chef, it's a different one. Oh, it's a different one.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right, so can you share a particularly challenging experience you faced while training or early in your kitchen career.

Speaker 2:

Wow, yeah, my God. You know it was so long ago, when I had an early kitchen career, that everything I've done since then has been so crazy. So again she's asking me if I had anything back in the day that went crazy.

Speaker 1:

Challenging. What was your most challenging thing when you were early in your career?

Speaker 2:

Trying to advance. Trying to advance was the most challenging thing I had to do when I was young, because no matter how good you did or how hard you worked in the chef world, it's hard to advance because there's a difference between someone falling out where you can fill in their spot. That's the biggest problem. Number two is when you work hard. A lot of chefs and owners take advantage of that and they want to keep you there.

Speaker 1:

Burn you yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, instead of advancing, it was really challenging leaving from one station to the next, because if you perfect one station, nobody wants to take it off.

Speaker 1:

It's hard. They keep you there and I understand that now as an owner.

Speaker 2:

it's when you have someone really good at a station. Yeah, the biggest challenge is coming off of that and going somewhere else for the owner or the chef because you're so good at it. So one of my biggest challenges growing in the chef world was advancing up in the ranks.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. What ingredient do you feel is overused in modern cooking?

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's a good one. I didn't look at these questions, by the way, before, so I don't have much study time.

Speaker 1:

We wanted this to be pretty raw. I wanted to be real and right up front the most overused cooking ingredient right now.

Speaker 2:

Man, that's a good one, because I'm only speaking about Italian food. I haven't really seen what's going on. Man, that's a good one, because I'm only speaking about Italian food.

Speaker 1:

I haven't really seen what's going on. Well, just what? Yeah, I mean, what one do you think that people even think is overrated, that everybody puts in things?

Speaker 2:

I think truffle.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was going to say truffle.

Speaker 2:

Truffle is something that's I love truffle, though Truffle is amazing when you have a white Alba truffle and you shave that bitch.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love truffle.

Speaker 2:

Now all the other truffle-infused things is totally overused, totally a lot of it's fake.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's not real truffle. Yes, okay, so I agree with that one.

Speaker 2:

There's a huge difference between me loving truffle and using it on everything shaving or truffle-infused everything else, everything Okay.

Speaker 1:

All right, that's a good one If you can make one request to every guest who Okay, Understand, read the room and be patient.

Speaker 2:

Understand where you're at, understand what you want and understand that this may not be the place or wherever you are may not be the place that you want, so don't blame them.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. All right, it's from Lori. All right, how does a person who works with so much yummy food find discipline to maintain a healthy physique?

Speaker 2:

That's something that's in you. So the the glory of that question is is I have the ability to make very delicious things that are healthy, where most people couldn't get that same savory or umami flavor out of food. But I have the skill and the accessibility to make healthy food taste really fucking good. So it's a matter of your, and it's also a matter of what you give a shit about yourself. You know You're going in, I'm going, I'm in my 50s now, so you have to kind of live. You're either going to give in to that or you're going to try and combat that. That's where you're at.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right. With so many demands on your time, how do you carve out enough time to actually work out? So this is a good one Cause you're right, it's really hard. It's very hard, so it's really hard. Your schedule is so weird, right.

Speaker 2:

Working out consistently, like most people who get up at 4 AM. Lori actually is one of these people. She goes, I know her. She goes to the gym four o'clock religiously every morning and I know this because I watch her post.

Speaker 2:

She, she's one of those people. So good job on that. I can't do that because at 4 am I'm just winding down from my body's in REM or something at that point. Yeah, you're not. So it's hard for me. Depending on my schedule as a business owner and everything, it's really hard to consistently have a workout plan. You're doing a lot of body stuff in your own house. You're going to the gym way less than you normally should, but you get there. So the bottom line is you just have to make the time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right, this is from Susan, so this is one we can both answer, because we've actually had this discussion. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?

Speaker 2:

My death row meal would be a Sunday ragu, meaning slow braised pork, slow braised sausage, the beef, everything. Even throw a brussel in there, maybe a meatball, slow cooked tomato sauce with a pack of the or rigatoni pasta beautiful pecorino Romano Locatelli that that would be my last death meal without a question, all right so my choice is the best steak you can get on the planet with lobster drenched in butter and mashed potatoes.

Speaker 1:

That is my. That is my ultimate meal and I honestly you know I eat that meal a lot yeah, that's good, that's a good one, and I honestly eat that meal a lot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's good. That is actually a meal I eat on a regular. If I had to die with that, I wouldn't be mad.

Speaker 1:

I would not be mad. I wouldn't be mad at it. That would be probably.

Speaker 2:

yeah, I would be asking where the pasta is, but hey, Well, that's yeah.

Speaker 1:

I was not raised that Italian, I was raised Midwest. No, but All right, so this is from Daniel. So what's up, bro? The question is, what did you do when COVID was here? Did you have to shut all the way down for a few months? How did you handle that?

Speaker 2:

No, covid was a bitch man, as we know. I mean, we hear that word and it's like fuck. But I'm going to tell you the restaurant industry, I felt really slighted, I felt attacked, I felt persecuted. You know what I attacked? I felt, um, persecuted. Yeah, you know I'm saying, and it was, it was horrible because you're watching the rest of the world kind of maneuver, but the restaurants and bars we got hit like, like, like it was meant to be yeah like it was. It was to me at the time matter.

Speaker 2:

It felt like they were just trying to eliminate restaurant life period from the world. And, um, we had absolutely zero. We had nothing. Luckily we had stuff in. We had nothing. Luckily we had stuff in place to get some sort of funding. We got, just like everybody else did in business. But I think the restaurant industry took the biggest hit. There was places that were open for decades that closed down because we couldn't make it through.

Speaker 2:

So I just did the best I could. I went down to a very bare minimum and I followed any guideline. They gave me an opportunity to at least sell something. I went to the best part of doing it. If they said you could have curbside service, well I made a damn festival out of it. If they said we had to have six feet apart, well, I made it six feet between you. It was cool and I took advantage of it. Anytime they said there was a new rule, instead of succumbing to it and closing down and getting mad at it, I just made the best of it because people still wanted to do it. So if they gave me an opportunity to do it, I took advantage of it. We put our partitions up. We made it fun. I had the lines we did reservations for people caring. I did anything I possibly could based on whatever little shit they gave us to try and survive on. Yeah, I just capitalized on and said I got to do this, yeah you guys did a great job with it, so it worked out well.

Speaker 1:

All right, William, All right. Why are you hating on biscuits and gravy man?

Speaker 2:

Biscuits and gravy sucks. Let me tell you something this ain't the Civil War, all right.

Speaker 1:

Why do you hate them so much though?

Speaker 2:

Why do I hate them? Because let me get to this. Ain't Dunkirk. You know what I mean. I didn't just save a bunch of people in World War II and we're eating on the ship. Look, biscuits and gravy to me is the most ridiculous gluttony on the planet.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's a biscuit, that's just You're just spitting it out, not even a good biscuit.

Speaker 2:

The gravy is just fucking flour and cream. It's the sausage and it makes you burp all day. I'm not down for it. Man, you sit down and eat that damn thing in the morning. I can't understand it. I don't like it. It tastes like shit. I don't like biscuits and gravy. We're not in the trenches. Like I said, that's something you eat during a famine.

Speaker 1:

No to biscuits and gravy. Let's move on. Sorry, william, all right, sergio, why do you think gnocchi isn't more popular in the US?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question, because it's really not all that popular in Italy either. In certain regions it is at certain times of year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But it's not this big ongoing thing where people are just going crazy for gnocchi.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

It's filling, I love it. It wasn't accepted in America a lot, so it was never introduced properly.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So when you eat a really good gnocchi dish like when we make gnocchi here I only make it once in a while because it's time-consuming and takes a lot of work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So to make gnocchi really, to really emphasize it for what it is, a lot of people don't know how to do that and they present it wrong. So when people eat it they're not getting the right experience experience so they kind of get turned off to it, got it. But when you have gnocchi done proper, it's fucking amazing.

Speaker 1:

One of my favorite things. It is delicious. It is my favorite, all right, justin a supporter from denver phoenix, so both all right, cool, get it justin. All right. What was the dish you made that made you want to be a chef, and what dish made you and helped you, like, elevate your career? What was a dish that you felt put you over the top?

Speaker 2:

when I was young and when I was young 16-something I was in a culinary program that kind of turned me on to this side of the industry. I loved cooking. I always loved food. My father was a chef, my family's a big cooking family. But what got me into the service end of it? It was a contest. I entered as a youth in a junior chef competition in Boston and I won a dish with my scallop dish. That's still on my menu today. So it's just, it's seared U10 scallops with a beautifully done risotto and then a sambuca glaze with candied fennel, and that's something. That winning. That is what brought me into the okay, this is cooking, and now this is competition for myself. Chefing that right then, back when I was probably 16 years old or something like that, is where I realized it. It took some time from there as well, but that would be the turning point.

Speaker 1:

That's crazy, and it is. I don't think many people know that that that dish that's on the menu today was from when you were 16. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's on the menu today was from when you were 16, yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool, and there's been other people impersonating her. I've seen scallops and stuff, other ways people add cream.

Speaker 1:

They had their own style but this is something I did on my own back then and it's still no business for a 16 year old to be putting that out. Try it okay, uh, when is the norfolk market deli opening?

Speaker 2:

can't tell you you have to tune in for that. No, we're looking at stay tuned. We're shooting for the fall here 2025, september, october, hopefully uh, framby street, get ready okay and we are putting a lot of work into it.

Speaker 1:

It's gonna be amazing all right, get ready for that mike. Okay, scott, um, build me the perfect dinner start to finish. And what wine are you drinking with it?

Speaker 2:

perfect dinner. Wow, that's a big question, because perfect for everybody is different uh-huh for you, my perfect dinner is my perfect dinner to me when I go out is a well rounded experience as far as covering all bases. I like sea, land, air. I like them all, okay. So for me, a perfect dish would start typically with a seafood. I always like to start with a seafood, something cold or crudo, okay. With that, I would like a frangicorta or a um, any type of rosé, uh, preferably a grenache based rosé.

Speaker 2:

Okay, non-sparkling and um, so that would be like a tuna crudo, you know, scallops crudo, or maybe even a seared, um, charred, octopus, something like that. Start moving on. I'm going right in the pasta. I like a pasta course as my next course, small one, something that isn't really meat-based, something a little bit more tomato-y, something light, or if they have a light ragu, maybe a duck or a lamb, something like that, and with that I'm going with a Barbera right out the gate. I'm going to go something a Barbera or a Nebbiolo, but on a lighter side, like a Gatianar or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Now, moving into the dinner, it's going to be something big. Like you, I want to. I want a nice hearty steak, a piece of veal, I want some lamb, I want something big. That's perfect for me going from the sea to the land and then, with that duck being in the air in that pasta, try and incorporate that somewhere. If there's no steak or if it's something like that, I do like a good roasted chicken or a pheasant or something like that. That's perfect to me. And again, I'm going to go with a Brunello, depending on the meat, or a Nebbiolo in the Barolo range or something like that. That, to me, is my perfect. If I'm going to go French, depending on the bird, the game I do like a Chateau Noir to pop.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and that's that All right. So you were talking so much. I need you to put your code back in to get your phone back on. I was wrapped up in the food it timed out on me. All right, here we go, give me it back.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker 1:

Here we go. That was a good question, okay, all right, so this is for Janine. So there's a couple of questions. One have you ever created a dish that totally flopped? What was it? Yes, a million.

Speaker 2:

Here's the deal. I can't tell you what it is because there's been a lot and the only way to succeed and get better is to fail first. So I have a lot of failures to get to where I was. And what I mean by failures is it probably didn't meet my palate. It might have met someone else's and been happy with it, but it didn't meet mine. So a lot of them flopped before it even got to the table with me. That's why I learned I've designed a system for myself many years ago that when I make my specials, I create them in my head.

Speaker 2:

I put them on paper. I get my ingredients. Never do I put one on the menu and taste it first.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you always do it without tasting.

Speaker 2:

So the first time I make my specials is when the first customer rings it in.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So has that ever flopped before? And I pulled it off? Yes, but I can't really recall what it was, but it has happened. Okay, all right, I'm pretty good now at managing where I'm at. So, yes, janine, that's Janine, right? This is Janine yeah, so yes. I have flop on a couple.

Speaker 1:

Well, her other question have you ever had a meltdown in the kitchen? Gordon Ramsay style.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely. You don't get to where you are by managing without having to do that. These are all steps. These are parts of the course. They're all part of it. I threw a hot pizza at someone that came out of the brick oven wrong and it was ripped in the middle and I just took it off the peel and threw it across the room and it wrapped across and burnt them and all that shit. So fuck them.

Speaker 1:

Oh good, Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 2:

But anyway, yeah, there's a lot of things. Yes, that happens all the time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, not anymore, but it did. Okay, it did. If your life had a soundtrack, what would your theme song be during dinner service?

Speaker 2:

Oh shit, it depends on the night and the service. What did you say?

Speaker 1:

Skylar said back that ass up, back that ass up. Call me Big Daddy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean there's a lot of songs. It depends on the mode and the minute. Everything from Crazy Train, from Ozzy to Danzig Mother, to Throw that Ass in a Circle, to Don't Stop Get it, get it.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. There's all kinds of stuff. Okay, they're all good. And lastly, if your kitchen could talk, what would it say about you?

Speaker 2:

This motherfucker's crazy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this kitchen's yeah.

Speaker 2:

This motherfucker's crazy.

Speaker 1:

The first kitchen has a different voice. The first kitchen was this guy's a criminal.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, kitchen was. I've had a different. The first kitchen was this guy's a criminal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this one's just this guy's crazy. That's perfect. All right, janine, thank you. Okay. So this is pamela um. I would be interested in knowing how one is able to secure an investor in order to grow their business. Also, at times, I lose the inspiration, so what's the inspiration?

Speaker 2:

that's a good one, pam. So pam's a pam's a good friend too. Uh, great comment comment great question.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that one's good.

Speaker 2:

Securing an investment is very hard in the restaurant business because everybody it depends on why they're trying to invest in you. If you can sell yourself to the investor, that's one thing, but the investor has to have something in it for themselves. Her or he has to have something in it for them. So typically that's monetary. Secondly would be clout, reputation. So a lot of people use their money for clout and a lot of investors, unfortunately, going to the restaurant business looking for some sort of clout. So if you're, you have to have something interesting enough for an investor to want to be part of, meaning they're going to get financial gain back. Firstly and secondly, they have to have something cool enough to make them look like the investor quote unquote they have to look like the guy or the girl who who's behind the scene. So create something that is enticing and people will want to invest in it.

Speaker 2:

Um, when you lose inspiration, what I do is I travel and I go to other chefs, friend or foe. I'll go to restaurants. I don't like to remind myself of why I don't like it and what I'm doing is right. That's number one. And then I also go to other restaurants that are really good to inspire me to step my game up.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I like all of those, and we actually did do a whole investor episode in season one. So if you go back to season one two, you can listen to that, because that was a whole episode just on that. So that was all the ones on yours, okay, all right, so we'll move to the Instagram questions from our burnt hands perspective Instagram page. So the first question, and you can answer this however you see fit why is Tony so damn sexy?

Speaker 2:

God damn it. I don't what happened was. I have nothing to do with that, you had nothing to do with that.

Speaker 1:

I have nothing to do with that. You had nothing to do with that. I have nothing to do with that. That's all my parents, I guess I have nothing to do with that I don't know what the hell to tell her.

Speaker 2:

That's a question. I guess it's funny. I don't know, and that's Brooke. So you know, brooke. Well, I appreciate the compliment, but I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I have nothing to do with that ass and I was like no, I'm totally asking that question, just to see.

Speaker 2:

It could just be the Cosmos lining up, it could be Alright.

Speaker 1:

so and then this is another one kind of in that realm from our boy Casey over at Born United, which is really funny. Unrelated comment, but very important to him to get this answer. Two part comment.

Speaker 2:

Alright, first question Buckle the fuck in. I can guarantee this is going to be a good one First question ass or boobs, Ass? All day.

Speaker 1:

Casey, you have to let us know if you agree with us too. And two, so this is one for the guys out there. You know, yeah, this will be entertaining. All right If said female is gorgeous, talking 10 out of 10, eyes smile, great credit score. Glad you put that in there, uh, but is an absolute psycho like a stage five clinger, might have a drinking problem and has two different baby daddies. Is she still worth taking to bed?

Speaker 1:

ah well, my question is this I told you it was gonna be a good. This is a two-part thisparter.

Speaker 2:

This is so bad. This is a two-parter.

Speaker 1:

Like we said, this was Ask Me Anything, so this is literally anything, Do you?

Speaker 2:

know this stuff about her before you take her to bed.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

That's the question. Okay, if the question is yes, fuck, no, run, run, run. It ain't worth it. Go get the fuck out of there. Let them be crazy and pretend it never happened. Number two pretend you don't know about it and take her to bed and fuck shit out of her and then deal with the crazy. Number three you don't know about it and then you get victims, and then you get wrapped into that shit and now you're pussy blackmailed. And now that's a whole other problem.

Speaker 1:

That's a whole hashtag, hashtag.

Speaker 2:

That's a whole hashtag. That's a whole hashtag. So now you're in trouble, so the best suggestion for me in my age now, learning life.

Speaker 1:

Finally.

Speaker 2:

Back the fuck off of that crazy bitch.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, okay.

Speaker 2:

Because she may be a 10 in bed, but she might be a one when it comes to your mentalness and what the fuck's going to happen after?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, mental health matters.

Speaker 2:

Go with what you know and get the fuck away from the crazy bitches. Ten or not, I don't give a shit. Bitches, be crazy, hey listen, that's a Trojan horse. You know what I'm saying? That's a Trojan horse. She comes in all pretty and shit and you don't know what's inside that motherfucker, it's a Trojan pussy Right, exactly Sorry. I'm telling you Like in Troy they put out the inside of that thing. It killed the whole fucking world.

Speaker 1:

It killed everybody. Fuck that. That is a good okay.

Speaker 2:

And I know Trojan horse is for me.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right.

Speaker 2:

That's it. Good question, dude.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, casey, you're awesome. Thanks for bringing the life to the party. All right, so now we're going to go back the other direction, back to the restaurants.

Speaker 2:

Okay, let's reel it back in.

Speaker 1:

All right. Have you ever had a thoroughly unpleasant customer? You could not please, and how do you deal with a situation like that? Now, this happens a lot. I've been a witness to it and I've also been on the other side of it, so you go ahead with yours first.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we have it often it happens a lot and nowadays I just ignore it. I don't care If you don't like everything that's been done. Right there's with the team here nine times out of ten. Yes, if they're still unruly, get the fuck out. Don't come back. There are so many people that want to enjoy life and enjoy time and I don't need your toxicity. My team doesn't need your toxicity. We are all professionals, we all love what we do, and if you are unruly or you don't like what you like or you are demanding, then get the fuck out. Period.

Speaker 1:

Just get out.

Speaker 2:

Don't come back, I will escort you nicely out the door Somewhat nicely.

Speaker 1:

Somewhat Depends on the situation. It means I don't touch you.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean Sometimes. I didn't say the verbal wording out the door isn't going to be any better. No, but listen.

Speaker 1:

I don't care, get out, get the fuck out.

Speaker 2:

That's how I deal with it. We don't letthink it, we just walk it off.

Speaker 1:

No, just cut it off.

Speaker 2:

Get out buy. We have proper things to do here we don't have time for your shit.

Speaker 1:

Life is too short. No, exactly, life is short.

Speaker 2:

You're here to enjoy yourself, and so is everybody else. No one wants to hear your problems.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

Especially if they're done Now. If they're not done, right, we wouldn't have this.

Speaker 1:

I mean some people go out looking for that kind of situation Like they go out to make trouble and they want to just bring their bullshit.

Speaker 2:

They just bitch all the time.

Speaker 1:

They don't care, they don't care where they're at, it doesn't matter. So I think restaurant owners and service staff need to stop taking it personally, because they're going to do that to anybody. It's not you, it's not the restaurant. They're going to do it to anybody. It's how my bullshit. But your bullshit is my bullshit, so it's a whole situation. So just tell them, yeah, just tell them. Good, don't pay, just fucking leave, don't come back, right?

Speaker 2:

beat it.

Speaker 1:

Because probably anyone around them knows that they're an idiot anyways and they're not going to take their word for it, so that's fine, All right. So we are moving to the other Instagram questions. Some of these are more on, so get out of our debauchery for a second.

Speaker 2:

I like the debauchery though.

Speaker 1:

I know it is fun. All right, if you had to give.

Speaker 2:

This is Danny Chef D If you had to give anyone advice in our industry from your experiences, what would that be? Listen, stop acting like you know everything at a young age. Listen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay, listen, pay attention, ask questions, be repetitive in the knowledge you have. Don't just own it, walk away from it and act like you have it Actually utilize.

Speaker 1:

it All right, that's a good one, all right. So, melvin, what was your?

Speaker 2:

first memory that solidified your love of food, growing up in food.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Growing up. There's no first memory. It was all a memory. Yeah, it was all memory. So I come from a very, very food influenced family and if they weren't and didn't know it, yeah, I felt it growing up. So the italian traditions in my in in the household were amazing. I love them. Uh, and that was my influence is to continue on with that for my own reasoning. They may not have known that was even happening, they could have just been eating dinner in your, but for me it was very influential for when I was little okay, so that's good.

Speaker 1:

All right, so this is evan, so we love it. All right. Best dining experience you've ever had. Do you have a? Do you have a time? I have? I have one that was like a standout because it was different I can't answer that.

Speaker 2:

I've had so many fucking pleasurable experiences over food because that's where I go to, that's my happy place, so I don't have one. I have a bunch that are so fucking good, but it depends on the person, the people, the time, the timing, what was going on the food itself. There's a lot of reasons to judge that. Overall, I've had too many amazing meals with amazing people to say there's one that outweighs the other.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'm going to go with New Orleans, because that was probably my top, one of my top meals, really. So yeah, that was Chef Phillip Lopez, who used to be here with me at Club Soda. Went down there, saw him and he did a very different style one, seating, a night type service Sure, type service, and it was, you know, 15 dishes, a little more on the molecular side, right, but everything had flavor and was quality meat like, had a lot of substance to it, it wasn't like the frou-frou, you know whatever, and they had the wine pairings and that was probably one of the most different experiences where literally every dish was good.

Speaker 2:

So I think that was those are hard, because sometimes you get the ones that just fail and they're just like too much everything he did well, that's good that you can pinpoint that I can pinpoint that and I mean, like you know, yeah, there's a lot of so there's a lot, everything, all the all the things that went around it, yeah, is what made it happen and and I could think of one restaurant that I liked, that I you know, and it's not crazy because you would think, being a chef, it'd have to be a michelin crazy and those crazy and those are fucking amazing too.

Speaker 2:

Don't get me wrong, but I have to say that one of my favorite restaurant experiences was my first time going to Fiola Mare in. Dc in Georgetown. That's an amazing Italian restaurant, but just the food and how it came out the first time I went there was a really good twist on how I'd never really seen it before. It was delicious and I loved it and it inspired me.

Speaker 1:

Okay, all right cool. Amongst many other All right, so let's go. Mario, what's the ideal ratio of semolina to 00 flour or pasta? Do you have an ideal ratio?

Speaker 2:

Well here, good question, right there. That's different because everybody makes pasta differently, but there's only so many ways you can make fresh pasta. Now we're going to talk about two different things real quickly.

Speaker 1:

I know we're on time, but this is a good point to make. When it comes to making, we got three more questions after this.

Speaker 2:

We're going to get through them. We got them. So when you're making pasta, you're either using an extruder or by hand at home, or using a little hand spun or a KitchenAid attachment. Let's go with that. Let's go with what people are making at home with the 00. I don't use two flours.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

They're two different courses, which means they're going to absorb liquid differently at different speeds. Okay, and you're going to overwork one to match the other. This is what I found out in my time. So if I use 00 flour, it's all 00 flour. You're going to get a fluffy, silky, really nice unworked thing. If you're going to use semolina only, you're going to need some sort of extruder with pressure to really break down those. Semolina is a lot more coarse, it has a lot more. It needs a lot more pressure to absorb liquid quickly without overworking the dough. If you use semolina, you have to sift it through with your flour. So if you're going to use double zero, sift it through a sifting and then take your semolina, sift it the same way. Typically it's two, two half half. Okay, two eggs, two cups of flour, half teaspoon of oil, half teaspoon of salt.

Speaker 1:

Now we need to do an episode on just pasta, apparently.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So if you're using a cup of semolina and a cup of 00, your semolina flour is not going to absorb as fast as the 00, pay attention and you're going to have a chewier, more rubbery type of product in the end because that semolina is going to work against the 00. The 00 is going to work against the double O. Okay, the double O is going to absorb all your egg and all your oil first, and then whatever's left is going to go into semolina and you have to use a lot of pressure and a lot of rolling or kneading to get that semolina to accept the double O flour as fast. So my recommendation to you is go with one or the other, and if you're making stuff at home with a rolling pin and going through a machine or a cutter or a fucking pasta machine, go with one or the other. You don't have enough force and pressure to match the semolina with your double O. You'll get a much more consistent product if you typically just go with double O at home we just go and do a pasta episode.

Speaker 1:

That's my opinion, that's my experience.

Speaker 2:

That's my advice. People can look at me and say it's wrong. Well, cool, right on.

Speaker 1:

So these last few are fun, so they'll be quicker. Alright, so bikers across the nation. What is the most inspiring place you've ever eaten?

Speaker 2:

I think I just mentioned that with Fiolamare was a good one.

Speaker 1:

Inspiring is a little different.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, no it's a good question because, like I said, chefs will pinpoint one thing and say it because it remembered them. But for me it's not that easy. I I've been around the world and I get inspired easily by a lot of places, so you go back to italy.

Speaker 1:

I go to italy for inspiration yeah, but it's a specific restaurant yeah, I can't I can't say.

Speaker 2:

But inspiration comes to me in the whole experience. So I'd have to say going back to italy, um, or anywhere indigenous to where I'm looking, if I'm in hawaii, I'm eating indigenous product to hawaii.

Speaker 1:

I get inspired by that okay, all right, this is one um patrick, all right. So this is for me, it's. Of all my varied careers, what was my favorite and why?

Speaker 2:

This goes to you.

Speaker 1:

So most Well, we've had like again. You've had different careers. I mean.

Speaker 2:

I've just had a lot of different careers, but you're selling all of them, so it's a good question.

Speaker 1:

They all came together for this. So it kind of all came together. But I mean, most of you know, I mean I was in restaurants for a long time design, television, media and now marketing. And honestly, I think when and the reason we're doing this show like the restaurant business was my favorite because it was the one that I felt the most energized and the most complete myself. You don't have to put on a front, you can stand behind the bar and be a smart ass you can, you know but you're making people happy and you get different interactions every night and it's not as monotonous. Even though the tasks are monotonous, the people aren't. So it was something that always kept me excited and I never felt run down by it.

Speaker 2:

No, wave is the same.

Speaker 1:

No, it's never the same and it's always a good time. So, like out of like, literally, you know, being on live television, yes, that's an amazing career. Was it my absolute favorite? No, so career, was it my absolute favorite? No, so that's probably weird to most people because they probably think that's the coolest thing, but it's, it's not. So probably the restaurant. So, patrick, just answering that, um, another one, patrick is um for you, which this one is actually pretty funny. If you weren't a restaurateur, what would you be doing?

Speaker 2:

as a career, I'd be fucking ride my motorcycle and raise in hell. End of story. Is that a career?

Speaker 1:

yes, that's your career.

Speaker 2:

You may not have a good long-term plan you may not have a 401k If I wasn't in the restaurant world. What would I be doing for a career? Motorcycle, something I'd be working on, bikes, doing mechanicals on bikes Doing something Customizing, building, selling, rebuilding I'd probably be locked into the motorcycle world.

Speaker 1:

You'd be doing more in the motorcycle space.

Speaker 2:

Yes, okay.

Speaker 1:

All right. Well, that one All right. So we're going to go to the burnt hands one. The other one on this was people that are kind of newer to the show, don't know our lineage. So it was what was your first impression in 1999 when we met each other, of how either crazy or stupid we were at that time?

Speaker 2:

I don't know if I can nail the impression. I don't know if I can do that, but I remember when we first met we were both very active as far as just being very outgoing Worked hard worked a lot, so I think we clicked really fast right away. You know what I mean and um, and that was that. I mean we became friends very quickly and and had a respect for each other the whole way through and we've always maintained that. And here we are.

Speaker 1:

I think that's a it's a good question, but I don't think a lot of people like mine was more your sense of humor, because a lot of people don't see that as much, because you're working, you're serious the time and we always have to be serious and professional. So total goofball, total goofball. Like doesn't take much seriously, I don't take much seriously, but we cover it up well.

Speaker 2:

You got serious and light. We were young, we were in our early 20s when we met yeah 20. Yeah, 20.

Speaker 1:

So I mean Sam, I am. So my friend told me when I got into the biz, if you get to the nine month point you're in it for the long haul. What point did you realize you were in it for the long haul?

Speaker 2:

When I realized I couldn't do much else with such ease.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Meaning. I was in it for a long time and I just thought it was a job. I left the industry and I couldn't make it right.

Speaker 1:

I couldn't make ends meet.

Speaker 2:

I was doing stuff. I was getting myself in trouble. I ended up doing things that you probably shouldn't be doing, ended up going to jail. I've had all kinds of shit that happened wrong when I wasn't in the kitchen. So it kept you that happened wrong when I wasn't in the kitchen. So when I got back into it is when I realized this is where I'm supposed to be. So I think I realized that. Sam, to answer that question, I realized it when I wasn't in it, not when I was.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's a good way to put it. I like that All right. So, steven Wright, my big question is that some of my friends have as well and this is good for bartenders to weigh in on on the bottom too, to weigh in on on the bottom too Going to a bar and sitting down and getting a drink, and your bartender's just going to assume that you're going to sit on your phone. Same goes for dinner. The whole time, for your entire experience. The bartenders don't have any communication with you after dropping your drink off. Are restaurants concerned about this as customer service, or is it the new norm?

Speaker 2:

Oh, good question. Yeah, I think it is the new norm and I think that's just society and I think, stephen, I think the best way to anyone, for anyone, to interact is to literally sometimes people have to be told what to do yeah and I think, if you look right at the bartender, any bartender would be cool and find you to be intriguing.

Speaker 2:

If you, if you were to just say, hey, listen, tell me a little bit about yourself. Man, I don't need to pry or anything, but I just don't want to be on my phone. I'd rather have a personal experience. You can do that in a way of not feeling like you're trying to hit on a woman if she's a bartender, or prying into a man's life. It's quite simple Just say hey, listen, I'm not a phone guy man, you don't have to get crazy with it.

Speaker 2:

But I think a lot of bartenders are so used to being ignored that they are programmed to not talk to people and bother them anymore. I don't believe that's a problem of the fucking bartender. I think it's a problem of the guest. The guest and you, stephen, are a victim of it, because when you go there, the bartender is just now so used to being a certain way that it's falling on you. Yeah, and I think that's the problem. So I think if you break the cycle with them, you're going to find nine times out of ten that they're going to be kind of like oh, you want to talk?

Speaker 1:

Well, most people do want to. But I mean, I've been in that situation too where I will literally put my phone face down and sit there with them and wait and try and have a conversation, like I'll keep trying to interject or ask questions and they don't want to talk. Well, here's another thing, bartender. Having a bartender who is not sociable and trying to make you feel like a more whatever valued guest or whatever the conversation is, frustrates the hell out of me, and there's a lot.

Speaker 2:

here's a problem I have. When there's a when you're, when I go out, I'm social.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

If I travel, I go to bars. If I'm in a hotel, I hang out at bar places. If there's a good looking bartender a woman, right, I'm sure it works the same way for you guys. When there's a good looking bartender, I'm not always trying to fuck you.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean Not every guy is trying to fuck you every single time. Look, you're beautiful, got it. You're cool, got it. I've been around, I've had my share of beautiful women. But just because you're beautiful and I'm sitting at the bar doesn't mean I'm talking to you because I'm trying to fuck you, or I'm trying to take you home, or I'm trying to bring you upstairs in my room.

Speaker 2:

It's not the case, just trying to have an actual conversation A lot of women bartenders, especially now, don't give you the time of day. They don't want to talk to you. They just walk away as if everything you're doing is trying to talk. You're, I'm not so relax.

Speaker 1:

Relax and yeah, I think you have to initiate on both sides, but I like the suggestion. Just tell them I don't want to be on my phone tonight what you got, all right. So last question, we're gonna go with Krista. So how do you stay innovative and fresh with your menu?

Speaker 2:

You don't. It's very hard. After doing it for 30 years and after 13 years of specials and after three years of this place bringing specials, you do run the well runs dry right, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, being innovative, you have to go find it. You have to dig deep down inside and realize what you do. And you always have to remember that people are coming in because of what you offer and you don't have time to stop. So it's more driven out of necessity than a lot of times where it's so fun to just paint you know what I'm saying we run out of necessity than a lot of times where it's so fun to just paint. You know I'm saying we run out of that. You know it happens with everybody. Songwriters, uh, entertainers, we all go through this where we have to put away everybody's expectation of us and find it within ourself to put it out. And that's when I start getting innovative, is when I start realizing I want to cook tonight. Yeah, you know what?

Speaker 2:

I mean for, so Can you read the last part of that question real quick. No, I closed it.

Speaker 1:

Hold on, yeah, just how you stay innovative and fresh with your menu.

Speaker 2:

So that's yeah, yeah, so it's not as easy as you think. So staying innovative and fresh is within yourself. You have to always. I have to, not you. I have to always remind myself that people are coming here because of what it is we do and that's what drives me, that's what keeps me innovative is like, okay, I've got to stay up with that. I have to stay up with that, or else I become irrelevant, and that's no good.

Speaker 1:

That's good. So this is, yeah, the first AMA-style podcast.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we can keep going. Should we do this again, you guys?

Speaker 1:

have to let us know. Should we do it again, Make a comment. We'll put up another thing for next season. We'll do. Maybe we can try a new one a season.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, let's do it. But you know, what I think would be fun too is if we get some interaction, as always, hit, subscribe and follow and like and share and all that stuff. We like it. But if you could, we'd like to do this live. It would be fun to have people calling in.

Speaker 1:

Actually that would be fun or doing it live in the actual restaurant doing it live actual crowd here, like doing it and having people shout out questions yeah, that would be there were a lot more questions. Um, we can't get to them all because we can't go on for hours.

Speaker 2:

I mean we could but we'll do another, we'll do another one.

Speaker 1:

We had another like 10 questions that we didn't get to, so we'll do those in the next one, but yeah, if you send them in, I think it was.

Speaker 2:

It was fun it's just a little bit different. It's a little more personable and you get to see my point of view as a chef when you come in here. A lot of people have these questions. I get questions every day. All the time and I'm surprised nobody asks me the fucking real question everybody asks all the time.

Speaker 1:

What real question.

Speaker 2:

What does a chef? What do you eat?

Speaker 1:

Where do you eat? Where do you eat or?

Speaker 2:

what do you cook at home? I try not to cook at home ever. I don't like to, and here's the reason why I'm so used to having a team behind me, a phenomenal team. But I can't cook at home anymore, because that means I've got to clean and mess. Yeah, I've got to shopping. No, no, no, fuck all that.

Speaker 1:

Oh, alright. Well, that was it, we did it.

Speaker 2:

Alright, sounds good. Boom, oh, we missed. Oh, we missed God we haven't even been drinking, that's the problem. That's the problem. Yeah, that's all right, all right. Listen, appreciate you all Check us out, keep it going. Thanks for the one year of awesomeness and ciao for now. Ciao.

Contributor

Antonio Caruana

Host
Contributor

Kristen Crowley

Co-host